In the interest in doing my share to keep this forum alive, I am posting a project that I am working on.It is far from finished but I will update as I progress.

First the story.

A guy called me a few weeks ago and said he had an old bell. He said it was 120 years old and came out of a college in central Texas.He is very patriotic and wanted to pull the bell on something in parades. He plans to ring it in honor of our military forces.

He thought a cannon carriage would work for his needs and he found me through my website.He wanted to know if I was interested in building something like that.I told him sure! I love stuff like that.

After thinking about it for a day, I told him he needed a limber instead of a cannon carriage. A limber is the two wheeled vehicle that pulls a cannon. In the Civil War, it was pulled by six horses.I have made two of them. They also held the ammunition chest.

I made up one of my famous hand drawings to show him what I had in mind.It will have 36" wheels. The bell is 18" tall and weighs 105 lbs.

We agreed on a price and I started work.This is mostly true 4" X 4" fir material.

It is fun to make!

His intent is to pull this by hand so I made a handle for the front that also can also be lowered to be a foot. I also modified the front end of the pull pole to accept a trailer hitch receiver. Now he can pull it with a four wheeler or a golf cart if he wants to.

I'm dressing the whole thing up with some cool metal work. He doesn't know any of this yet.

Great project, Zulu! Which town in central Texas? Brady is the declared center and I'm from Brownwood, about 50 miles from there. Lotsa church bells in those old communities.Are the wheels gonna be iron rimmed?

Great project, Zulu! Which town in central Texas? Brady is the declared center and I'm from Brownwood, about 50 miles from there. Lotsa church bells in those old communities.Are the wheels gonna be iron rimmed?

Thanks for all you do!

Don

Don,Yes the wheels are going to have "iron tires".I'm not sure where it came from but I will make it a point to find out as I want to know also.Zulu

ZULU: From a clear blue sky, 1. Will you be worried at all about balance, I'd think the bell and an ammo box loaded would be about the same? 2. As usual will all the metal work be blackened including the hitch? 3. Have you thought about making a hinged cover of some kind to conceal the hitch when the limber is parked so the modern doesn't interrupt the reproduction?

ZULU: From a clear blue sky, 1. Will you be worried at all about balance, I'd think the bell and an ammo box loaded would be about the same? 2. As usual will all the metal work be blackened including the hitch? 3. Have you thought about making a hinged cover of some kind to conceal the hitch when the limber is parked so the modern doesn't interrupt the reproduction?

newtooth,Yes, I am worried about balance. Too far behind the axle and the thing could flip over backwards. Too far in front of the axle and the tongue would be too heavy too pick up.I have to work on that.

All the metal work will be painted black. The hitch will be easily removed so I'm not worried about concealing it.Zulu

ZULU: Getting the balance just right is a good thing however even when you least expect it some ............ jerk will grab the tongue just to see how heavy it is, and, without realizing it will get the thing over backward. A simple kicker stick under the bed to keep that from happening when the limber is stationary , parked somewhere might be a good idea if it isn't already there. JUst a WAG thought.

I'm glad to see in your pics that the background seems to be back to some kind of normal, hoping that all your good neighbors are doing as well as they can.

newtooth,The neighborhood is not back to normal.I spent all morning at a neighbor's house just 200 yards from me. We were ripping out all of his sheet rock and hauling it to the street. He got 5' of water in his house.I've never seen anything like this.

The limber will not flip backward when the front pull pole is in.If it is not in, it could be flipped by someone lifting the front splinter bar too high.It's really pretty hard to safe guard against someone doing something really stupid.

Final pictures.My customer picked up the bell limber.They were happy.Here are some shots of the bell and the flag staffs. The flag staffs on top will fly flags for all military forces and an American flag in the middle.

My only gripe is that they polished out the century old patina on the bronze bell and plan to somehow fill in the dents and gold plate it.Gold plate a bronze bell? Really?

Oh well, won't be able to see it from my house.

I did however, get to ring it. It's really loud! Ear hurting loud.Zulu

You are 'OneOfAKind' Zulu! So happy you joined our site! You are TRULY an inspiration...your craftsmanship, integrity and the fit & finish of your products are no less than exemplary.Did you (or they) decide not to broadcast what town they represent?? Surely would like to know.

They are from Cleburne, South of Fort Worth.They say they will send me some pictures when they pull it in the next parade.It has been my experience that most of the time, the pictures I get from customers are usually pretty poor shots.We will see.

It has been fun being a part of this forum.I have posted hundreds and hundreds of photos of my projects that were all lost in the great Photobucket ripoff. Not much I can do about it.I still have all the photos but all the WWA pictures are lost to the public.

Anyone who wants to see my work can do so on my website.If you have the time. There are over 100 pages of stuff to look at there.www.jmelledge.com

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